For Bellator's Brent Weedman, the anti-Chael Sonnen, trashtalking a sign of weakness

As Weedman finalizes preparations for Bellator’s upcoming welterweight tournament, which kicks off at this weekend’s Bellator 49 event, the six-year veteran is simply looking forward to testing his skills against Chris Lozano (8-1 MMA, 1-1 BFC), a man he openly refers to as a “fantastic guy.”

Call him the anti-Chael Sonnen. But don’t call him unprepared. Weedman just finds manufactured trash talk to be a sign of mental weakness.

“It’s sort of a pet peeve of mine, this sort of manufactured dissent, this manufactured wrath like, ‘I’ve got to hate, kill, destroy,'” Weedman told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). “There are all these euphemisms about killing the other person, all this nonsense. To me, the more a fighter has to do that, it sort of smacks of a mental weakness to me – the inability to just do your job and do it 100 percent and really be vicious in the cage without hating the other guy personally. It just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

A Kentucky native, Weedman first appeared on the national scene during Bellator’s season-four tournament. In the quarterfinals, Weedman avenged an early career defeat by earning a decision win over Dan Hornbuckle.

Harsh rivalry? Bad blood? Hardly.

“I definitely count Dan Hornbuckle as a friend,” Weedman said. “I’ve fought that guy twice. Hopefully I’ll fight him three times. I’m bound by honor to give him a rematch.”

Weedman was then booted from the tournament in the semifinal round by Jay Hieron in a controversial decision result. But Weedman said he holds no ill will in regards to the result. Sure, it snapped a 10-fight win streak, but Weedman said it’s more important to focus on the challenge ahead, and Lozano presents a firm test.

“It’s really difficult to prepare for somebody who is known for the unknown – flying punches and spinning elbows and spinning kicks,” Weedman said. “It’s sort of hard to prepare for any individual thing he could be doing. I’ve seen him fight a couple of times, and so you get a little bit of a feel for his style there, but the thing you have to consider is the guy doesn’t have many fights yet, and so he’s still growing as a fighter each fight. Each time he steps into the cage, there’s a potential for him to be a completely different fighter.

“All I can really do is focus on my preparation and make sure that I’m at absolute top notch and know where my strengths are, know where my weaknesses are and work from there.”

And maybe bring a little anger to the cage? Just a touch of rage?

Not going to happen.

“Chris is a fantastic guy,” Weedman said. “We’ve been at a couple shows together. We had to do some promo stuff over a weekend in New York City. We hung out that whole time. We talked. We knew we were fighting then.”

For Weedman, MMA isn’t kill-or-be-killed combat. It’s just a sport. Keep the manufactured hype out of MMA, Weedman says. Everyone knows what to expect when they get in the cage. And don’t expect anything less vicious just because he’s not interested in talking trash on the way to the fight.

“It’s just business,” Weedman said. “It’s just a sport. MMA is sort of a weird way to choose to make your living. All the guys that do it, we’re all sort of cut from the same cloth. It just makes sense that we would get along with one another.

“I had a football coach tell me in high school – and it’s my favorite way of explaining this – I’m not going to come out and hit Chris and he’s going to be shocked. ‘Oh, my goodness, Brent hit me.’ He signed up for this exact same thing. He knows what’s coming.

“My football coach used to say, ‘If your mom signed up to line up across from you, you just run right through her.’ Whoever it is, when you’re on the field, when you’re in the cage, you do your job. My job is to win the fight, and then afterward, we go back to being boys.”

MMAjunkie.com Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by Gorgeous George, MMAjunkie.com lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Goze. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.

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